Benedito Offers Barça a Glimmer of Hope

Agusti Benedito eligible candidate to replace Joan Laporta as the chairman of Spanish and European champions Barcelona, attends a television debate in Barcelona on June 11, 2010. The four candidates will stand on June 13, 2010 in an election to replace Laporta who can no longer stand for election again after holding the position since 2003. Barcelona's outgoing vice-president Juame Ferrer is the only one of the four candidates in the race who has the backing of Laporta. AFP PHOTO / JOSEP LAGO (Photo credit should read JOSEP LAGO/AFP/Getty Images)

While hashtag trends are gaining popularity on social media and messages are reaching the club, there’s something else going on behind the scenes – something that’s part of the bigger picture.

Back in June this year, Agusti Benedito (the man in the photo above) told the media that he was starting a vote of no-confidence against Barcelona’s board due to Sandro Rosell’s and Josep Bartomeu’s institutional mismanagement of the club. The Rosell-Bartomeu era has been full of corruption, shady deals, and a murder of the values of the club. This can be clearly seen from the fact that Sandro Rosell (president from 2010-2014) was thrown into jail for money-laundering in May after stepping down from the club due to the everything that happened during the Neymar transfer. (Rosell hid the cost of Neymar using false contracts – something that can put you in jail in Spain for up to 6-years). When Rosell resigned, his vice-president Bartomeu stepped up and nothing changed for the club.

“The serious institutional crisis at our club requires that the club’s members assess whether the current board still has our confidence”

In July, Agusti Benedito, the former presidential candidate (2015), announced through Twitter that he had enough support to start the vote of no-confidence motion against Bartomeu and the Barcelona board. Since Bartomeu and co. are not showing any signs of resigning soon, it’s glad to see there is someone out there working to fix the club.

Working together with the most successful president in Barcelona’s history, Laporta, and another presidential candidate from 2015, Freixa, Benedito needs the signatures of approximately 16500 members (socios) of the club. This is in accordance with Article 5, that states you need at least 15% of the members’ support to go through.

“If you are a club member and believe that to restore the club we love the board should resign, join up with the will of many other fans by signing the vote of no confidence.”

I’m writing this because the process starts tomorrow – 1st September, 2017. Benedito needs the 16500 votes within 14 working days from then. Benedito will have a few games (including 2 home games versus Eibar and Espanyol) to accumulate more support and once he has those votes, the motion will start at the end of September.

He’ll then need – in a complicated procedure – a 2/3 majority of favorable votes of at least 10% of the club’s board. This is the best case scenario because the members of the board will be relieved of their positions in this scenario and a period of elections will start.

We’ll just have to pray now that Benedito’s motion goes to plan and us fans can witness the best case scenario take place. This club needs change now more than ever.

#BartomeuDimiteHoy

Note: This is a post by our new writer Yazdan Basir. You can congratulate [or argue with] him on Twitter at@yazdan_basir.

Sandro Rosell and Bartomeu’s reign began with the Qataris and will be ended by them.

Their first act was the sponsorship deal with Qatar which funded the shady deal for Neymar.
At what cost? Corruption, scandal, fraud, tax evasion, money laundering and turning one of the most special institutions in the world (“Mes que un club”) into a laughing stock!

Qatar won the 2022 World Cup bid with bribes. A country that is suspected of sponsoring terrorists and is currently under sanctions from multiple fellow Arab neighbours in the Gulf region.

I believe Neymar’s reason for leaving wasn’t sporting related. Don’t believe what he says or what the papers write. It’s no secret that his dad (who’s his agent) has always greedy and always tried to mooch the best deal for himself by any means necessary. Neymar betrayed the FC Barcelona with the way this transfer was conducted. He KNEW he was leaving. He played us until the last minute. But, that’s karma!

The same source that funded the Sandro/Bartomeu era, took their crown jewel back to their new project. They brought him to Barcelona. Barcelona nurtured him and turned him into a world class Ballon d’Or contender. Now, he will win it FOR and WITH the Qataris at P$G.